Students Advance to National History Day Competition

Twenty-one Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) students, including three Reservoir students, will advance to the National History Day Competition being held at the University of Maryland, College Park, from June 11–15. Congratulations to Kashvi Mehta, Vidya Suddamalla, and Olivia Warhol guided by teacher Jan Edlowitz. The students advancing won first or second place at the statewide Maryland History Day Competition, held on May 6 at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

HCPSS swept two categories at the state competition, taking first and second place in Senior Individual Performance and Junior Group Documentary. Two HCPSS students were also honored with special awards.

The National Contest is the culmination of the annual competition cycle and a celebration of student scholarship. After spending months on project research and preparation and successfully competing at local and affiliate contests, student scholars are invited to share their work at the National Contest.

This year’s National History Day theme was “Frontiers in History.” Students in grades 6–12 conducted research related to the topic, analyzed information, drew conclusions, and created a History Day project in one of five categories (exhibit, performance, multimedia documentary, research paper, or website) to submit for review at the school, county, and then state level.

Each year nearly 3,000 students with their families and teachers gather at the University of Maryland, College Park, for the week-long National Contest. They come from all fifty United States, the District of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Department of Defense Schools in the Atlantic, and international schools in China, Korea, and elsewhere (NHD International).

A list of HCPSS students advancing to the national competition is included below. These students have already won competitions at the school and county levels and were competing against hundreds of students from school systems across the state. At the state contest, Anne Schaefer, Social Studies Teacher at Bonnie Branch Middle School, was recognized as the Howard County History Day Teacher of the Year.

Program Category Winners

Senior Group Exhibits

1st Place
Anesthesia: Changing Surgery Forever

Students: Kashvi Mehta, Vidya Suddamalla, and Olivia Warhol

School: Reservoir High School

Teacher: Jan Edlowitz